Have We Loosened the Definition of Disability? The Effects of Changes in the Law and Its Interpretation on Clinical Practice

Evolving changes in the law and documentation guidelines since the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act have led to a loosening of the definition of disability, in which relative weaknesses are now interpreted as evidence of a disability. In this paper, after acknowledging my own shortcomings, I trace the evolution of the law and documentation guidelines from the late 1990s to the present. I discuss how this has led to increased pressure from parents and students on evaluating clinicians to diagnose a disorder and confirm that the student has a disability that requires academic accommodations. Rather than recommending effective interventions and compensatory strategies, many stakeholders (parents, students, psychologists, disability support professionals) now seem to preferentially favor provision of accommodations. I conclude by describing how these changes have affected my own practice and make recommendations for best practices for disability documentation.